Mr. Richard Shilamba - Parliamentarians for Global Action

Transcription

BY Richard
Shilamba
Executive Director
Children Education Society (CHESO)
P.O.Box 7013, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
O: + 255 732 992 164, M: +255 754 296 812
E: chesociety@yahoo.com
1
THE CHILDREN EDUCATION SOCIETY(CHESO)
CHESO is a local, private, voluntary, non-partisan, not
for profit sharing, non-governmental organization
empowering communities to protect children,
promote their rights and reinforce their right to
education.
One of the CHESO’s Key Result Areas is on Access to
Justice for Juveniles, their family and community
members.
Among the expected outcomes in this areas is that
Parliamentarians in Tanzania will, progressively,
amend Tanzania Laws to, ultimately, abolish Death
Penalty and Impose alternative humane sanctions.
2
 To ensure achievement of this outcome, in 2014, with
support from the Foundation for Human Rights
Initiative(FHRI) of Uganda and its Partners: The Penal
Reform International(PRI) and the European Union(EU),
CHESO has established and is nurturing a Tanzania Civil
Society Coalition Against Death Penalty, initially,
comprised of 5 members (i)CHESO itself as a Coordinator
(ii) The Centre for Widows and Children Assistance
(CWCA) (iii) ENVIROCARE (iv) Inmates Rehabilitation
and Welfare Services Tanzania (IRaWS-T) and the (v)
Kisarawe Paralegals Organization (KPO) to collectively
campaign for Progressive abolition of Death Penalty in
Tanzania and imposition of humane alternative sanctions.
3
 OUR ANALYSIS ON THE SITUATION OF DEATH
PENALTY IN TANZANIA.
 Brief Background: Before arrival of colonialists in Tanzania,
the country had no Death Penalty. Credit to our Ancestors.
 Death Penalty was, for the first time, introduced and applied
in Tanzania by Germans Colonialists under section 2 of the
Germany Decree of the Chancellor of State with respect to
the exercise of criminal jurisdiction and disciplinary powers
over natives dated 22nd April 1896. Under this law, Convicts
were hanged in Public! Germans were defeated during the
first world war(1914-1918). Whereby, Tanzania mainland was
put under British Administration who used and applied the
Penal Code of India which had mandatory death penalty.
4
OUR ANALYSIS ON THE SITUATION OF DEATH PENALTY
IN TANZANIA.
The Penal Code if India was adopted by the Tanzania
government after independence in 1961 and continues
being updated from time to time but maintaining
mandatory death penalty for Murder in it. There are also
other offences under the Tanzania Penal Code and the
National Defense Act No. 24, 1966(Cap. 47) which attract
the death penalty (though not mandatory) including
treason and other military related offences.
 What has been the Impact of Death Penalty in Tanzania ?
 Persons who have been Hanged or kept on death row
for indefinite time have neither deterred nor reduced
incidences of human being killings in the country.
5
S/
N
Region
Persons on Death
Row in Tanzania
Mainland Prisons
Males
Females
15
1
Total
Juveniles
Serving
Sentences and
Remandees
Juvenil
es Total
Males
Females
16
2
0
2
1
Arusha
2
0
57
1
2
3
3
Dar
Es 57
Salaam
Dodoma
101
8
109
6
8
14
4
Iringa
0
0
0
24
0
24
5
Kagera
11
1
12
18
0
18
6
Kigoma
0
0
0
30
4
34
7
0
0
8
0
8
8
Kilimanjar 0
o
Lindi
7
0
7
3
0
3
9
Manyara
3
0
3
9
0
9
10
Mara
0
0
0
31
0
31
6
11
Mbeya
28
3
31
18
1
19
12
0
0
0
70
1
71
13
Morogor
o
Mtwara
9
0
9
7
0
7
14
Mwanza
45
4
49
90
11
101
15
Pwani
0
0
0
4
0
4
16
Ruvuma 0
0
0
3
0
3
17
Rukwa
0
0
0
5
1
6
18
Singida
0
0
0
2
0
2
19
0
0
0
23
3
26
20
Shinyan
ga
Tabora
33
0
33
2
0
2
21
Tanga
69
0
69
8
0
8
TOTAL
378
17
395
364
31
395
7
CHILDREN EDUCATION SOCIETY(CHESO)
As per the table above, as of 01.03. 2014,Tanzania had
395 persons (378 males and 17 females) on death
row. Source: Speech by Hon. Mathias Meinrad Chikawe, The
Tanzania Minister for Home Affairs presented during
Parliamentary Budget Session for the year 2014/2015,
Dodoma, May 2014 at page 65.
People kept on Death Row for indefinite
period of time. See table below:
8
S/N
Period on Death
Row
Male
Female
Total
1
Less than 6
Months
0
0
0
2
6 Months-1 Year
8
1
9
3
1-3 Years
28
3
31
4
3-5 Years
118
8
126
5
5-10 Years
219
11
230
6
10-15 Years
63
9
72
7
15-20 years
52
0
52
8
20-30 Years
25
2
27
9
More than 30 years 2
0
2
TOTAL
34
549
515
9
INCIDENCIES OF MURDER/KILLINGS IN TANZANIA vs THE ABOVE
PERSONS ON DEATH ROW/HANGED
YEAR
INCIDENCIES OF
MURDER/KILLING
S
TOTAL
DATA SOURCE
2011
4,023.
National Bureau of Statistics, Tanzania in
Figures, 2013, Dar Es Salaam, June 2014 at page 77
2012
3,928.
-do-
2013
3,929.
Male
Females
-doTotal
11,880
10
 As per the table above by 2004, 2 people had stayed on death
row for more that 30 years. Data Source: Hon. Omar Ramadhan
Mapuli (MP), Minister of Home affairs Speech to the
Parliament during the Parliament Budget Session of 2003/2004
at page 51.
 238 death row inmates (232 males and 6 Females) have,
reportedly, been hanged in Tanzania since independence (1961)
to date. Data Source: Prisons Department Head Quarters, Ref.
HQC.68/XIX/22 of 6th June 2007 quoted by The Law Reform Commission of
Tanzania in its Discussion Paper on the Review of Capital punishment,
Corporal Punishment and Long Term Sentences in Tanzania presented
during Stakeholders Workshop held on the 27th March 2008 in Dar Es
Salaam.
11
 238 death row inmates (232 males and 6 Females) have, reportedly,
been hanged in Tanzania since independence, 395 persons (378
males and 17 females) are on death row but still, just from January
2011 to December 2013, Tanzania had 11,880 reported killings of
human beings.
 This means that Death Penalty has not deterred commission of
murder in Tanzania. In fact, Other humane alternative sanctions
would have brought more effective deterrence effect than death
penalty. In Canada, for example, the homicide rate per 100,000
population fell from a peak of 3.09 in 1975, the year before the
abolition of the death penalty for murder, to 2.41 in 1980, and since
then it has declined further. In 2003, 27 years after abolition, the
homicide rate was 1.73 per 100,000 population, 44 per cent lower
than in 1975 and the lowest rate in three decades.
 Source of the Canada Data is: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-
wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, third edition, 2002, p. 214
 Research findings on the relation between the death
penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United
Nations in 1988 and updated in 2002, concludes that:
". . .it is not prudent to accept the hypothesis that
capital punishment deters murder to a marginally
greater extent than does the threat and application of
the
supposedly
lesser
punishment
of
life
imprisonment."
13
B. Death Penalty is reported to being used as a
weapon by some people in power (the Police) to
intimidate, revenge, demand bribes and/or prosecute
for Murder some innocent people in the country.
 Nipashe of 10th May 2013, in its article titled “Polisi
Wakamatwa na kichwa cha Mtu” reported that 3 Police
Officers and 1 citizen were arrested and detained at Dumila
Police Station, Morogoro Region having been, reported,
found with a human skull which they were alleged to had
been using to demand bribes. They, in May 2013 reportedly,
put it secretly in a business man car and threatened to
charge him for murder unless he gave them a bribe of Tsh.
25 Million (US$ 19,000). N.B. Death Penalty is irreversible!
14
 JUVELINES PUSHED BY LAW TO BE TRIED BY THE
HIGH COURT FOR MURDER THAN JUVELINE
COURTS
 Because, it is believed by law enforcement system and
some citizens that Perpetrators of Murder can not be
rehabilitated and so should be hanged, The Law of the
Child Act No. 21 of 2009 and the Penal Code (Cap 16
R.E.2002) transfer all Juveniles accused of Murder aged
between 12 and 18 years from Juveniles Courts which
can not impose death penalty to be tried by the High
Court of Tanzania with mandate to impose death
penalty. Consequently,
15
Persons are Sentenced to death and executed after
attaining the age of majority (18 years and above) at a
time of sentencing for murder committed while they
were Juveniles (under 18 years). Tanzania has 395 Juveniles (364
Males and 31 Females) in Tanzania mainland Prisons serving sentences
and Remandees). See the Slide above on the number of persons on
death row.
 In the case of R.v. Lubasha Maderenya and Tegai Lebasha, for example,
the High Court of Tanzania (Lugakingira, J.) did not impose a death
penalty on one of the accused because he was below 18 years at the time
of commission of the murder but on Appeal, the Court of Appeal of
Tanzania reversed this decision and sentenced the accused to death for
having attained the age of majority (18 or above) for murder committed
while he was under 18 years old. See High Court (Mwanza) Criminal
Sessions Case No. 143 of 1977, Appeal No. 32 of 1979. Quoted also by
Prof. Chris Maina Peter, Human Rights in Tanzania (Rudiger Koppe
Verlag Koln 1997) at page 30.
16
 This undermines the purpose of Tanzania criminal laws prohibiting
imposition of death penalty to Juvenile offenders. Section 26(2) of the
Tanzania Penal Code (Cap 16 R.E.2002) states that “The sentence, of death
shall not be pronounced on or recorded against any person who at the time
of the commission of the offence was under 18 years of age, but in lieu of the
sentence of death, the court shall sentence that person to be detained during
the president pleasure…”.
 In 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations
moratorium on the death penalty resolution (Resolution A/RES/67/176),
with 111 votes in its favour. It calls upon all States “to progressively restrict
the use of the death penalty and not to impose capital punishment for
offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.
 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) ratified by Tanzania
in 1991 also prohibits the use of the death penalty for offences committed by
a person less than 18 years of age.
 The ICCPR ratified by Tanzania prohibit death penalty to persons under the
age of 18.
17
 Victims of Murder Denied Compensation by Law
 Offenders of crimes punishable by death in Tanzania are exempted by
law from making compensation to victims of crimes in consequence of
murder committed. See Sections 348(1) of the Criminal procedure
(Cap. 20 R.E. 2002
 Thus, a person sentenced to death in Tanzania, before being executed,
nor his/her heirs can not be sued by a victim nor be ordered by Court to
pay compensation to an injured person in an act of murder. As a result,
injured persons incur hospital expenses and other costs from their own
pockets.
 Keeping persons convicted of murder alive accounting for their actions
in prisons and confiscating their properties to compensate victims
would be an effective way of deterring murder in the country, especially
in this era of Albino killings in Tanzania.
18
Subjecting People to Imprisonment for Life(Natural Death
in Prisons)
 Pregnant Women Convicted of Murder exempted death penalty
by Law and Persons on Death Row whose death sentences have
been commuted are, as an alternative to death penalty,
imprisoned for Life.(ie. Until they experience what is referred to
as “Natural Death” in Prisons. This Natural Death Alternative is
supported by some government, Political Leaders and Civil
Society Organizations in Tanzania.
 Parliamentarians in Tanzania, For Example, put and maintain a
proviso to section 26 of the of the Tanzania Penal Code (Cap 16,
R.E 2002) stating that “If a woman convicted of an offense
punishable with death is alleged to be pregnant, the sentence to be
passed on her shall be a sentence of imprisonment for life
instead of a sentence of death.”

19
On October 10, 2008 the Legal and Human Rights
Centre (LHRC) in collaboration with the
SAHRINGON Tanzania Chapter and the Tanganyika
Law Society(TLS), reportedly, filed a case at the High
Court of Tanzania calling upon the government to
scrap out the capital punishment in the country
books. Alternatively, they Pray that those convicted of
Murder should be sentenced to imprisonment for
life to enable them reform.
See the Guardian of 20th January 2014 “Little hope for
anti-death penalty in new Constitution”
20
 For members of the Tanzania Civil Society Coalition
Against Death penalty coordinated by CHESO, our Position
is different. We consider imprisonment for life to be
inhumane and against the rights of detained persons. We
advocate for imposition of humane alternative sanctions by
calling Tanzania parliamentarians and other stakeholders
to limit imprisonment for life to a certain number of years,
let say up to 35 years, before or after which the prisoner
should be release. Tanzania can learn from Brazil, Colombia,
Croatia, El Salvado, Nicaragua, Norway, Portugal and Venezuela where
they have no imprisonment for life. Instead, they impose prison
sentences up to 30 years, after which the prisoner is released. The
Uganda Prisons Act defines ‘life’ as 20 years imprisonment. In Norway
for example, a life sentence is limited to 21 years with possibilities of
early release.
21
WHAT THE TANZANIA CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION
AGAINST DEATH PENALTY WANT
 We demand for Progressive Abolition of Death Penalty and
Imposition of alternative humane sanctions, We call the
Government to:
 1. Amend Tanzania Constitution and laws to create enabling
provisions for step-by-step (Progressive) abolition of Death
Penalty in Tanzania including:
 2.Amend the Tanzania laws to expressly prohibit sentencing
to death a person who attains the age of majority at a time of
sentencing for murder committed while he/she was a
Juvenile
 3. Amend Tanzania legislation to limit imprisonment for life
to a certain number of years, let say of up to 35 years, before
or after which the prisoner who exhibits good behavioral
change be released.
22
4.
5.
6.
Expunge the word “death penalty” under section 348(1)
of the Criminal procedure (Cap. 20 R.E. 2002) to enable
persons convicted of murder in Tanzania to be ordered
or to be sued in civil case to make restitution and
compensation to victims of murder while accounting
for their behavior in prisons.
Maintain the Tanzania de facto abolition of death
penalty
Increase the practice of commuting persons on death
row to imprisonment for life and establish possibilities
of releasing prisoners imprisoned for life after a certain
period of time
23
5. Amend the Law of the Child Act No. 21 of 2009 and the
Penal Code (Cap 16 R.E.2002) to set 18 years and above as
the minimum age for Juveniles criminal responsibility for
murder under the Penal Code. Thus, Juveniles under 18
years, accused of murder, be tried in Juveniles Courts
established under the Law of the Child Act No. 21 of 2009.
6. Abolish death penalty under Tanzania legislation for all
crimes
7. Impose and implement alternative human sanctions after
abolition of the Death Penalty in Tanzania.
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THE END
25
26

Mr. Richard Shilamba - Parliamentarians for Global Action

Transcription

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